2006年VOA标准英语-Is It Still Art If It's a Reproduction?

By Stephanie Ho
Washington
08 January 2006

The inaugural¹ exhibit at the new Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago is raising questions about art and the value of copies of art. The show features early 17th century Italian painter Caravaggio, but has none of his original paintings on display. Instead, the exhibit consists entirely² of high-quality reproductions of his works.

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Bacchus by Caravaggio, circa 1597
(Collection: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy)   
  

Loyola University Art Museum's cultural affairs director, Pamela Ambrose, acknowledges that not showing original works of art is "a little bit provocative³." She said this controversy⁴ is clear to her when she talks to museum visitors. "I have found that the response has been extremely good, extremely receptive, on the part of the general public," she said. "A few people have sort of shook their heads and said to me, 'I do not understand this. Why are you not showing real art?'"

The show's title is Caravaggio - an impossible exhibition. Ms. Ambrose said there are only about 70 authenticated⁵ Caravaggio paintings in existence in the world. Bringing nearly all of them together, she said, would have been difficult, if not impossible. "The premise⁶ behind it was that, more and more frequently, the world's great masterpieces are unable to leave their homes," she noted⁷, "whether it is a museum or private collection, due to fragility and the cost of shipping⁸, the cost of insurance."
 

Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio, circa 1599 (Collection: Galleria Nazionale
d'arte Antica, Rome Italy)   
  
Ms. Ambrose said the 57 Caravaggio images on display at the museum are from high-quality photographs that have each been enlarged to the same size as the original paintings - from one to six meters high. "It is quite amazing, because the whole image, which is printed onto a sort of mylar, a thin plastic, is back-lit by neon tubes," she explained. "And so, when you are looking at the photograph of the painting, you are seeing this luminosity that allows you to see all sorts of small details that it is actually very hard to see in the paintings."

Seeing new details in the old Caravaggio paintings is one of the positive features pointed⁹ to by art historian and conservator Phoebe Weil. She compares the exhibit of reproductions to original Caravaggio paintings she has seen. "There is a painting of a lute¹⁰ player that is in the Metropolitan¹¹ Museum of Art," she said, "and, in the upper left corner, there is a little detail of a bird in a cage. And, in the Metropolitan Museum, looking at the original, it is very difficult to see the bird in the cage."

She said she had never really noticed the bird in the original painting before, because it blended in with the painting's dark background. "But, in the digital reproduction, you can see it very clearly," she said, "and the whole different balance of the tonality of the paint of the colors, and being able to walk right up, put your nose practically on the digital reproduction, as opposed to the painting in the gallery, where you have to stand back a certain distance, you can see many things in the digital reproduction that you can't appreciate very well in the painting itself."
 

Rest on the Flight to Egypt
by Caravaggio, circa 1595 (Collection:  Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome, Italy)   
  
Ms. Weil says the exhibit has great benefits for students and artists, who can compare life-size Caravaggio paintings, all in the same place. But, at the same time, she emphasized her preference for seeing the real things. "My bottom line is that there is no substitute for the original," she said, "and there is no substitute for really understanding the materials and techniques - the paint, the pigments¹², the way an artist puts paint down, the way an artist handles paints, the way, in the 17th century, you had to get pigments and grind them in an oil medium, and all of this whole business of process, and the whole living thing of the original."

Ms. Weil says she hopes visitors to the exhibit will not come away thinking they have seen Caravaggio's art. Instead, she said, she hopes the exhibit will serve as a bridge to get more people interested in the artist and in going to see some of his original paintings.

The museum's Ms. Ambrose agrees. She says she believes the technology is just a tool to make the world's art treasures more accessible. "In some ways, this exhibition has a very post, post-Modernist lean to it, in that it would not be hard to argue a case about using this type of technology in a post-Modernist context, in that, 'it is art, if I say it is.' But it is not," she noted.

The Loyola University Museum show was organized by the Italian broadcast agency, RAI, and has already been shown in Europe. There are no definite plans for its future after it finishes its run in Chicago in February.

1 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

2 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

3 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

4 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

5 authenticated   

v.证明是真实的、可靠的或有效的( authenticate的过去式和过去分词 )；鉴定，使生效

参考例句：

• The letter has been authenticated by handwriting experts. 这封信已由笔迹专家证明是真的。
• The date of manufacture of the jewellery has not been authenticated. 这些珠宝的制造日期尚未经证实。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

8 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

9 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

10 lute   

n.琵琶，鲁特琴

参考例句：

• He idly plucked the strings of the lute.他漫不经心地拨弄着鲁特琴的琴弦。
• He knows how to play the Chinese lute.他会弹琵琶。

11 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

12 pigments   

n.（粉状）颜料( pigment的名词复数 )；天然色素

参考例句：

• The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls. 古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。 来自辞典例句
• The original white lead pigments have oxidized and turned black. 最初的白色铅质颜料氧化后变成了黑色。 来自辞典例句